Maintenance Guide - Benefits of tire rotation

Snapshot: Car manufacturers recommend tire rotation at every 10,000km or so. There's a reason, read to find out more.

If you are not aware, then you should know that tire-rotation is an exercise that requires you to switch the position of tires from front to back and sideways along with the spare in some particular order (depends on different factors). Tire-rotation may seem like an unsolicited advice given by tire and car manufacturers. But it does benefit if done properly and on a regular basis.

If you have not been doing it, you should. Here are the top reasons, why?

Longer tire life

A tire begins to wear as soon as you start driving, and its wear and tear not only depend upon the inflation pressure, but position too.

Front wheel that are steered, experience greater wear. Since wheels have some amount of camber built into them and they are not always perfectly loaded, they experience uneven wear too.

For this reason you may find that inside surface of tires experience greater wear than outer. By simply performing the tire rotation, you can reduce this effect considerably.

Better Handling

The handling aspect of the car is greatly affected by the traction that’s available on each wheel. The extent to which the handling aspect can get affected due to tires may be felt most pronounced while you enter into a corner aggressively.

Other than weight on a wheel and moments, the grip level gets also affected due to the tire’s surface condition.

On a completely dry road surface, this may not be of significant importance, but in wet conditions, it can prove to be disastrous, as uneven tire wear affects the water expelling capacity and in affect handling.

Better Fuel-efficiency

Most regular tires have wide operating range and perform well in all sorts of conditions. But it’s well understood that driven wheels require more grip than ones that are simply rolling since they handle the driving torque and are responsible for moving the car.

In a scenario where tire rotation is not done, driving wheels may wear out more in comparison to the other wheels.

As an effect, it may cause wheel spin and loss of power, hence reducing the overall fuel economy.

Save Money

The overall affect of tire rotation is delayed tire wear. Other long-term benefits are reduced mechanical wear/adjustment that suspension and steering components may need to undergo.

Tire rotation also ensures that any inadvertent accident / breakdown that may result from tire wear is avoided through regular tire rotation and upkeep that’s involved in the process.